1948

Governors from 11 southern states form Southern Regional Education Pact (SREP) with Meharry Medical College (Nashville). Under this plan, Meharry reserved 75% of places in freshman class for students from participating states and received $1,500 per med student and $750 per nursing student (Ward, 41). Following Supreme Court rulings in Gaines (1938) and Sipuel (1948), Univ. of Arkansas becomes first white Southern medical school to admit a black applicant to its medical school, Edith Mae Irby (54). Ditto re postgraduate medical education in 1930s and 1940s: “In lieu of creating postgraduate programs for black doctors – or integrating their current programs – a number of southern states provided scholarships for black doctors to study at Meharry” (86). Black doctors in Lynchburg, VA granted admitting privileges in city’s public hospital after 12-year campaign, but only on “Negro floors” and only black nurses could work with them (Ward, 158-159; cf. 175).